Aonach Mor

After a day shopping and recovering from the Five Sisters Sarah and I decided to have a potter up Aonach Mor.

The simplest way to the summit is to get the Gondola up to the ski center then wander round the side of the ski area following the fence line to the top of the ski piste. This takes a long time. On the way up I attempted to teach Sarah some boot and axe skills, we got them in the end.

Sarah taking a well deserved break at the top ski tow before we navigated to the summit.

Aonach Mor is a narrow featureless plateau with big cliffs on either side. To get to the summit requires walking on bearings for set distances, either pacing or timing. This proved to be an interesting challenge as different pacing are needed for summer and winter, and I can't remember how many paces I take in winter. So while Sarah paced I timed. we reached the summit cairn in an almost total whiteout. the views had been amazing on the way up but thoroughly crapped out as we got to the summit cairn. We decided to leave Aonach Beag for another day and started to navigate our way back.

This was nerve wracking and I had a little flap part way back. (Remind me never to give my map and compass to someone else). However after consulting the GPS and getting a second compass out (I was convinced that the firs had changed direction) we made it back to the top ski tow and then back to the gondola station.

A mentally exhausting day out.